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Sunday, October 27, 2013

AMD

In my last post on processors, I mentioned the company called AMD. AMD first of all stands for Advanced Micro Devices and their primary product is processors. AMD is also a leader in graphics cards, so the beauty of this sales system is that they have two components that every computer needs. Due to their dual market I can almost garuntee you've used a computer with something AMD in it within the last month if not shorter than that.

I won't bore you again with explaining the processors that AMD puts out, and you can just read my other blog here to find out about that if you're curious. What I will outline is their graphics cards. The most popular and also the cheapest are the basic Radeon cards. These cards provide good graphics for computer users who just need a little bit of graphics support and are found in a good amount of relatively low-cost computers. Where AMD really gets involved is with their higher-end graphics cards. For instance, many people are familiar with consoles for gaming, the PS4, Xbox One, etc. Well, every single one of them runs AMD graphics. The highest-priced pre-built computer in the world, the Mac Pro, comes with AMD graphics inside them as well. You can also install AMD graphics cards in your own computer, and let me tell you, it gets pretty intense there. They produce the best graphics card in the world, and it comes with a price tag of $550, the AMD Radeon R9 290x (not to be confused of course with the other Radeon models which can cost as low as $20). AMD is producing the most graphically superior hardware that has ever existed right now, and even though you have to pay an arm and a leg for it, its pretty dang sweet.

AMD takes an interesting approach to their market, producing two vital parts of a computer really well so that they've become a very powerful and fascinating company. Only time will tell what products they can come out with in the future to blow computers beyond anything anyone could ever have imagined. That's one thing that blows my mind about technology, is that it is often a conglomeration of different companies coming together to create products that continue to advance the rational knowledge of the computer world.